Over a year and a half since the pandemic first started to take its toll on the health and welfare of individuals and the economy, the country is still reeling and struggling to recover. Some employers and industries were able to pivot and weather the devastating effects of COVID-19. Others scaled back operations or closed permanently due to changes in demand, supply chain issues, or hiring shortfalls.  As businesses start to reopen, employers are facing new challenges.

Isha Malhotra, Trent Sutton and Nancy Zhang offer guidelines for in-house counsel when advising a business on a restructure in APAC.

ACC Docket

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On January 10, 2023, Governor Philip D. Murphy signed into law S3162 / A4768, which makes the 2020 amendments to NJ WARN effective 90 days from his signature, irrespective of whether a State of Emergency still exists.

As previously reported, under these amendments:

In Pham v.

This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment law developments in the federal courts of appeal in the last month.

Michael Lotito weighs in on a New York measure that would establish a policy-making council that would set rules on pay, safety and working conditions "as reasonably necessary" to protect worker welfare.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Lisa (Lee) Schreter weighs in on employers paying employees in cryptocurrencies and the legal questions that may raise.

Bloomberg Law

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Jorge Sales Boyoli weighs in on a reform that was almost passed in Mexico, which “violates the most sacred thing that a worker has: his salary.” 

El Heraldo de Mexico

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Jeanine Conley Daves discusses the fact that women still, in the year 2022, are rarely compensated on par with their male counterparts and suggests solutions for workplace parity.

Philadelphia Business Journal

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Rhonda Levy and George Vassos discuss a recent British Columbia Supreme Court case that directed an employee’s CERB payment to be deducted from wrongful dismissal damage awards.

Human Resources Director Canada

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Eli Freedberg explains that there are lots of gray areas for employers in a New York City law that requires them to post pay ranges in their job ads.

Bloomberg Law

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Eli Freedberg discusses New York’s controversial new pay transparency law.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Iván López García de la Riva discusses Spain’s plan to raise severance payments in certain situations. 

CincoDías

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Shannon Meade talks about states implementing minimum wage increases, increases in employers’ total compensation packages and the trend in “unretirements.”

HR Dive

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Paul Piccigallo talks about considerations for employers when raising minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation.

SHRM Online

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David Carvalho Martins answers questions about the payment of remuneration – or benefits – in cryptocurrencies. 

Human Resources Portugal

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Michael Lotito talks about the fifth-annual Labor Day Report from Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute, which examined the state of the labor market and several impending worker-friendly changes to state and federal workplace policy.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Denise Visconti offers tips to help employers navigate California’s SB 1162, which will require employers to disclose median and mean hourly rates and pay information on contractors, starting in May 2023.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Joy Rosenquist offers employers tips to manage compliance challenges that may arise from California’s new regulations that are designed to increase pay transparency.

WorldatWork

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Johane Severin says a few of New York’s new employment laws serve to protect the public from losing rights and protecting people who don’t have the same access to resources as others have.

International Employment Lawyer

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Sarah Bryan Fask explains how the special financial assistance will affect union-brokered pensions.

Bloomberg Law

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Shannon Meade examines the key labor and employment regulatory actions included in the Biden administration’s long-awaited Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.

SHRM Online

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On February 9, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its decision in Trustees of IAM Nat'l Pension Fund v. M & K Emp. Sols., LLC, No. 22-7157 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 9, 2024), affirming the district court’s decision to vacate an arbitration award for the employer in a pension fund withdrawal liability case.  The D.C.

Golf is one of the most significant informal business networks and approximately half of all women feel like their exclusion from these gateways is among the key challenges to reaching the highest echelons of corporate leadership. As a prelude to the 2022 edition of the “Masters Season,” Littler Principal Cindy-Ann Thomas explores how enduring barriers in recreational golf impact meaningful access and equity gains for women in corporate America.

As Pride Month comes to a close, we are celebrating with a very special podcast that features the personal stories and perspectives from two members of the Littler family.

Littler Knowledge Management Counsel, Betsy Cammarata (GSC – Kansas City) talks with Littler alum, Bennett Kaspar-Williams (Corporate Counsel for Labor Relations at Amazon Studios) about:

Emily Haigh, U.S. Army veteran and co-chair of Litter's Veterans Affinity Group, speaks with Littler attorneys William Anthony, Tracy Leidner, and Emily Arnett, who each have a family member currently serving in active duty.
  

An increasing number of employers, especially those in the tech industry, are conducting layoffs or reductions in force. What happens to foreign workers in these situations, whose work visas are often tied to their jobs? What options are available to foreign nationals who are in the process of obtaining permanent residency or are seeking to retain employment so as not to jeopardize their visa status? What notification requirements do employers have in these situations?

Trent Sutton and Thelma Akpan explore key reasons why employers in the APAC region should begin to think about pay equity and wage transparency or prepare to implement their own wage transparency initiatives.
 

What is it?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was established in 2008 to document the history and legacy of residential schools, which were operated between the late 1800s and the late 1990s by the federal government and Christian churches as part of a federal policy to assimilate Indigenous peoples into Canadian society.

Michael Chichester explains how the pandemic has changed what the workforce looks like today and in the future.

Law360

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Jim Paretti shares his opinion on the EEOC’s response to COVID-19 vaccine incentives.

Law360 Employment Authority

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The recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank") mandates, for publicly traded companies, shareholder advisory votes on compensation packages provided to top executives and on "golden parachute" packages payable in connection with corporate transactions.

On August 29, 2014, the Texas Supreme Court in Exxon Mobil Corp. v.

Financial services firms regulated in the UK by both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have long caused confusion, particularly in international financial services groups, with their complex regulatory pay structures and infamous bonus cap.

Johane Severin discusses the growing practice of “stay-or-pay” contracts, which some argue force workers to pay if they resign ahead of a stipulated date.

International Employment Lawyer

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The past year has brought sweeping changes to the world of work. Federal agencies finalized rules on minimum wage and overtime exemptions, union representation elections, pregnancy accommodations, OSHA inspections, and non-compete agreements. The Supreme Court scaled back agency rulemaking authority and lowered the bar for bringing discrimination claims. State legislatures expanded the patchwork of employment laws on a host of workplace topics. Meanwhile, the looming presidential election adds another layer of uncertainty to the mix.

Terri M. Solomon talks about Littler’s 2023 Employer Pulse Survey results, which show that employers are rebounding from 2020 as consumer spending on entertainment, travel and sports increases.

Law360 Employment Authority

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Zoe Argento talks about the two main types of valuable and sensitive information that employees typically steal and offers ways employers can prevent workplace theft.

SHRM Online

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Denise Visconti and Trish Martin discuss the steps company boards and senior management can take to support their organization’s pay equity efforts. 

Directors & Boards

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On September 1, 2021, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Department of Labor sub-agency charged with enforcing affirmative action and non-discrimination requirements imposed on federal contractors by way of Executive Order 11246, announced that it was reversing

OFCCP issued yet another notice today regarding its handling of a FOIA request for production of all federal contractors’ EEO-1 Type 2 data from 2016 through 2020.

The request keeps in place a February 17, 2023, deadline for submitting objections, but expands the grounds upon which employers may object, but only if the contractor includes an explanation as to why it did not object “in response to previous notices that we have issued, and why there is good cause for us to accept the objection at this point.”

Last week the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission revealed that the 2022 EEO-1 reporting deadline is again being postponed.  Reporting, which was expected to begin in July, is now “tentatively” scheduled to open in the fall of 2023.  The change was referenced in brief notices on an EEOC webpage and the EEO-1 website.

According to the EEO-1 website:

Alexander MacDonald says agencies may have to “regulate more modestly and litigate more often” after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Chevron.

SHRM Online

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In July, the Third Circuit upheld a District of New Jersey decision to throw out a withdrawal liability assessment, finding the multiemployer pension fund was barred from pursuing its claim because the fund unreasonably delayed notification of a withdrawal liability assessment for 12 years.

Withdrawal Liability Assessments Under ERISA